He's Alive!!

Hey!! Who's that? Drew?? I'm back!! I have a multitude of videos for you, to kind of catch you up on what has been going on for the past month.

First up is a vlog I made, which explains pretty much the rest of this post. It's a wee bit long, so I will give a brief summary of what all the other videos are. Of course, for the full, unfiltered Boyd's World! experience, you're gonna need to click on that there play button. Go for it!

In addition to my vlog, I have a few videos of me performing for everyone! First up is me playing rhythm guitar for I Eat Stickfigures, at a local benefit concert:

Ehh? Pretty rad, huh? COS also had a 30 minute set there, but the dude who recorded it hasn't gotten it up yet...something about the audio. Apparently it sounds bad? I coulda told him that, haha!!

Up next is me playing my acoustic at the open mic I went to this last Tuesday. Kaylee didn't capture my last song, but that's OK; I wasn't terribly happy with it anyway.

...Hmmmm. It was posted to Facebook, which means I can't embed it. Here's a link to it on the COS page, anyway!! Ya might just wanna hit the "like" button to the side...but, you know, that's up to you.

Finally, here's a link to Kaylee's Youtube channel. Her newer stuff isn't up yet, but the song "Pursuit" is freaking amazing!! It gives me goosebumps every single time I hear it.

Anyway...I'm gonna be blogging more again. I'm really, terribly sorry about my absence!! I'll do my darnedest not to wait this long again. Until next time, though...stay golden!!

Let's All Skank!!

Dang...yet another super-eventful week!! Actually, I guess it's been two since I've actually told you what has been going on, but I can only remember back a few days.

I was gonna write a post outlining each day of the week, but I can already tell that'll just be too freaking long. I will, however, tell you about the new guitar I got!! I know a dude who owns a weird memorabilia store that's about an hour away from where I live. He had this AMAZING vintage guitar there that I fell in love with upon first sight. I decided I would bring my rarely-played hollowbody bass guitar in there, and offer a trade.

Sadly, on the day I brought the bass down, he was in the back room, playing the vintage guitar for the last time before he sold it. To someone else. Argggggg. I still sold my hollowbody bass, and made $130 off it, more than doubling what I bought it for, all broken and whatnot. I made sure to ask for more than the other guitar was priced, just in case the sale fell through.

And what do you know, it did! My mom got a text that morning, saying the dude didn't buy the guitar after all. Guess what he bought instead?? My bass!!! Crazy coincidence, eh? Needless to say, I headed back there that day, and bought the super-amazing guitar. So far, it hasn't disappointed!!

It's a hollowbody as well, but this one's a six-string. It's a Penncrest, which was basically the J. C. Penney brand of guitar, made by Kay guitars. It has a Bigsby-style vibrato arm, and a little lever-thingy that will palm-mute the strings. It sounds delightfully echoey, and it feeds back very nicely.

OK...now that I've raved about guitars, we can move on to the next item of business. Tanner, of blogging fame (his post about the same thing I'm writing about), as well as our friends Damien and Cheyenne, have been planning on going to see Reel Big Fish and Streetlight Manifesto for quite a while. Of course, upon hearing about their plans and noticing that there would be an extra seat available in whatever car was taken, I had to ask if I could go. Long story short, that concert was on Thursday!! It was at Clutch Cargoes, an excellent venue in Pontiac. RBF and Streetlight co-headlined, with two opening bands: The Maxies, and Rodeo Ruby Love. The Maxies went first, and they were pretty freaking sweet. They were a violent, mean punk band, FROM GREENLAND (as they reminded us in every song.) Damien pretty much immediately pushed his way to the front of the crowd to skank (ska music's trademark dance), and the resulting skank pit quickly turned into a mosh pit. I hopped right in, and held my own pretty damn well.

The next band, Rodeo Ruby Love, was a nice, relaxing indie band with love songs and a synthesizer. They were nice, although they didn't fit in with the rest of the bands and got booed a little. I liked them, even though they were hard to hear at times.

Towards the end of their set, the crowd started packing back in. In a few minutes, my (probably) favorite ska band took the stage: Reel Big Fish. The crowd immediately started rocking back and forth, and it was *almost* frightening. I realized pretty quickly, however, that if I fell over I'd probably be able the just catch myself on one of the people less than 6 inches away on all sides. As the music started, the moshing began. Now, you might not realize this, but I like to consider myself a bit of a punk. Yes, I have long hair and I listen to mellow, happy music, but inside of me is a leather-clad punk that just wants to slam-dance and mosh the night away. And boy oh boy did I.

Within five minutes of RBF's set starting, I saw Damien go floating by on top of the crowd. At that point, I decided I MUST crowd-surf!! I asked him how he got up there next time I bumped (slammed) into him, and he told me to just shout at the people around me, "I'm going up!!" Apparently, they'll give you a boost. And they did!!! It was EXHILARATING. The crowd's hands were surprisingly gentle, and it was so incredible to look out and see the entire venue underneath me. I went up again during Streetlight's set, and almost got dropped (still amazing!)

Ahhh, Streetlight...by the time Reel Big Fish left the stage, I was kind of exhausted. I went and paid 3 bucks for one of their waters, which I immediately downed. At this point I should mention Thursday was the hottest day of the year, and it was around 100+ degrees on the floor. I was drenched with sweat, and all my clothes were soaked completely through. People on the balconies kept throwing water and ice down into the crowd, and it was WELL APPRECIATED. Damien observed taking off your shirt lowered your body temperature by about 20 degrees, despite making you look like a tool. Actually, almost everyone in the audience was shirtless by the end of the show, including some of the women. When I took off my shirt, I seriously wrung out about a gallon of sweat and water. Dis-gusting, hahaha!

After the show, Tanner was kind enough to buy me a T-shirt. He's kind of my hero now, of course! I am now the proud owner of a Streetlight Manifesto shirt! He told me to repay him when we go to see The Flaming Lips. Cause, ya know, it'll happen eventually!

All in all, it was a freaking amazing concert. I came home covered in bruises, and my feet hurt so bad by Saturday that I could barely walk, but it was amazing! I need to go to many, many more ska concerts with the crew.

Well...I have another story about the next day, Friday, but I'll make that my next post so I can share all the videos! (spoilers much??) Until then, try to go to an awesome concert!! Then blog about it so I can live vicariously through you!!

Obligatory Chicago Post: Pt. 3

Ahhh, we move on to Sunday, the second day of the DMB Caravan (technically the third, but I wasn't there on Friday)!! It was the most excellent day as far as music goes, although work was a bit harder.

See, Sunday was far hotter than Saturday, as well as way more oppressively hot and humid. Also, the concert-goers were somewhat annoyed with us, because for 3 days we'd been bugging them. All their money had gone to beer, and they didn't want to hear about some sticker. Still, we sold more on Sunday than Saturday! It kind of got confusing, though, because when I turned in a portion of our money to the organizers, I accidentally gave them some of my own money. Then, to make things worse, we counted the stickers wrong, so I thought I'd given them considerably more money than they were owed. Eventually, after nearly having a breakdown in the intense heat, I realized I had only given them $5 - as much as 1 sticker cost, which I would've eventually given them anyways. Still, after that incident, we just stopped selling them for the last hour. We sat in the mulch, got Cokes, and watched The Wailers play.

After our shift ended ("ohh, you didn't sell anymore? That's a bummer!"), we went and watched a mariachi band. Now, I'm not a huge fan of mariachi music - although it HAD been blasting all around the house we stayed at, all weekend. No, we went there because the next band that was playing there was important enough to me for us to stand around an hour early, just to get an amazing place to stand. Yes, that's right: THE FLAMING LIPS!! And get an amazing place to stand we did; we were only about 4 people back from the stage. Just so you get an idea, here's the road crew and band setting up the stage:

Crazy close, right?? The dude in the silver pants on the right was the guitarist/theramin player, and the guy you can just barely see on the left was the guitarist/keyboard player.

Wayne Coyne kept coming out onto stage, waving and staring intently at various things. Despite the 90+ degree heat, he had on a fur stole. Weird? He shot a confetti cannon at the audience at one point, and apparently tested the wind. (You know, for FUTURE confetti cannons.)

Finally, after about an hour of standing there, the show began. Wayne came out while the band was finishing up with testing their equipment, and said that they'd be covering Dark Side Of The Moon in its entirety, along with a few songs from The Wizard of Oz mixed in for good measure. But first, of course, he had to roll out on top of the audience in his giant plastic bubble!!

Yeah, I totally caught the bubble. He basically throws himself against the crowd, and it HURT to catch him!! I thought I had thrown my shoulder out at first. Also, that was the beginning of the literal crush of society that was the concert. I thought it was kinda cool, though - except during the song "Money."

At the beginning of that catchy tune, he brought out a huge, 10 ft. balloon, with a huge dollar sign on it. Inside, floating around, were bills of some kind. Upon closer inspection, it was all real money - lots of it!! He lectured the crowd about greed, and how "You shouldn't lust after this money...you shouldn't trample your friends, for such a minor amount!" Yeah, that "minor amount" was supposedly $10,000, gifted to us by Dave Matthews himself. With that said, the band kicked off the song and he flung the balloon into the crowd. There were actually a bunch of balloons just like it back stage, each with money in it, and he kept throwing them at us. It was quite terrifying - with each one, the crowd lurched around and moved collectively towards it. One popped right above me, and people around me got money; I saw one dude stuffing a $20 into his wallet!

The whole concert was INSANE. Words cannot describe it accurately, despite my attempts. There were about 30 girls, all dressed like Dorothy, all dancing onstage. Joining them, there were very stoned dudes in costumes representing the Tin Man and all that. Also, at some point, a giant, inflatable dolphin and sun-head-thing came out and added to the weirdness. It was just...crazy. Awesomely so. I know it wasn't the best they could possibly be, because it was a festival environment, so I NEED to see them at their own concert now.

Ohh, one other thing. You know the song Great Gig In The Sky, which is basically just a woman vocalizing for about 6 minutes? I wondered how they'd do it, but there's no way I could have ever expected their solution.

That's one of the press photos of the woman they had sing it...apparently, her name is Lizzie Allen.Her freaky huge moth wings kept flapping throughout the song. She ROCKED it!! I wasn't a huge fan of Great Gig In The Sky before, but now I'll picture their awesome re-imagining every time I hear it.

All in all, it was an INCREDIBLE show. Pink Floyd couldn't have done it up better, I guarantee! It was so good, in fact, my mom suggested we left immediately afterwards. I was glad she did, because I'd been thinking the same thing as her: how could anything else that evening possibly top that?? It was better to leave then, with my insane, trippy memories.

As for the rest of the trip...not too much eventful happened. I still need to update you on Bobby and I's time in the studio, and on my fun time at The Stars and Stripes Fest, a weekend concert festival I went to the 4th of July weekend. Ahh well, we'll save those for the next post!! IN the mean time...make sure to check out COS's Facebook page!! And, if you aren't already a fan, you MUST listen to The Flaming Lips. Go. Do it now!!

Obligatory Chicago Post: Pt. 2

Ahhh, I'm at home again. I love the Windy City, but sitting in my glider rocker in the living room still wins (for now). I'd have updated you sooner, but we had no internet Saturday or Sunday...our friends were on their own trip, and we weren't home enough to get the problem figured out ourselves.

So...not much else happened on Friday, so I won't worry about keeping you updated. On Saturday, however, our main purpose for being in Chicago kicked into action: The Dave Matthews Band Caravan, a travelling 3-day festival. Obviously, we couldn't afford tickets to see it, so we went with the eco-group Reverb. That's a link to their website, in case you're interested in free concert tickets and helping the environment. We only worked on Saturday and Sunday, because we didn't care much about any of the acts appearing on Friday. Plus, it'd be super exhausting, as we'd later find out.

Anyway, Saturday. We took the Metra train to the show, and discovered all city employees hated us. Not my mother and me in particular, just the concert-goers in general. Also, the train was completely full of us. When we got to our stop, we had to walk about a mile through a semi-frightening south-side neighborhood to get to the staff entrance. Once there, the guards pointed us down a dusty little road. Did I mention the show took place where a steel mill BLEW UP 20 years before? Let that set the scene a little. We took the dusty dirt road 2 miles in, turning tan-red in the process. When I say dusty, I mean blinding and choking dust. People going by on golf carts all had bandannas over their mouths, causing us to realize we needed some for ourselves.

After trekking our way to the check-in point, we met up with the Reverb employees and got our jobs. We were selling carbon-offset stickers, a job that sucked last time we did it. Basically, you have $5 stickers that people can buy. The money goes towards research and education concerning alternative energy, and each purchase offsets 300 miles driven by concert-goers. They're cool, and worth the money (some of the cheapest there), but people still hate you for selling the things. We were at least allowed to wander throughout the venue to sell them, so if we got tired we didn't have to keep doing it. Also, we got in about an hour before the doors were opened, so we could just wander around and check out vendors. During that time, I got a pair of cheap sunglasses, and a bandanna. The bandanna was from some Deadhead vendors, who gave us a staff discount. We thought it might be because we walked into their tent while they were all smoking pot, but it turns out they kept that up the whole day. The bandanna is pretty sweet, with a bunch of Grateful Dead skulls on it like paisley.

When the gates were opened, the main stage's PA started playing the Pink Floyd song "Run Like Hell." That seemed odd, until we saw the stampede start coming down the hill. It was INSANE!!! We got a video of it the second day, which I'll post soon. When the mad rush had subsided, we started selling. We sold 13 stickers the first day, which wasn't too bad. Actually, other people sold quite a few less, so I was pretty happy. We did spend quite a bit of our working time watching shows, and enjoying food and drink. They had frozen Keifer there, which ruined all other frozen treats for me it was so good.

Once we were done, we sought out shade and enjoyed some Diet Cokes. G Love was scheduled to play soon, so we went by his stage. Actually, we first stopped back by the Deadheads' tent and got a huge tapestry to sit on. It has (once again) a huge Grateful Dead skull on it, and looks really really sweet. Once again, I'll post pictures and videos in my next post.

We went and sat down, and then got back up again to watch G Love's set. He was pretty awesome!! We only heard him play songs from him newest album, but only the best from it. We left him early, to go sit down and wait for the next act I wanted to see, Ben Folds. I've only recently started to listen to him, but I REALLY enjoy his music!! Sadly, he was somewhat drowned out by idiot, drunken frat dudes. He did a hilarious cover, though, of "Sleazy" by Ke$ha. I've never heard the original, but now I don't need to...he did it up better and more amusingly than I could imagine.

After his set ended, DMB came on. The second song they played was "Burning Down the House," which I LOVE to hear them play. Honestly, it's my favorite song to hear them play. We stayed for about an hour of their set, hearing quite a few new songs. They seem to have a new album's worth of material, and played most of it during the course of the festival. After about an hour, we took off, because of A) the drunken asses EVERYWHERE, and B) we wanted to make sure we got home at a decent-ish time for work the next day.

When we did get home, we were starving and filthy. When I washed my hair, the water was brown with dust. Not to get too gross, but my snot was totally black straight into the next day. Actually, there have been many, many complaints on Twitter and IRL about "mud boogers." Needless to say, it was bogue. I slept like a rock, understandably.

So that's pretty much how the first day went. This post is already pretty long, and Sunday's experiences deserve an entire post. Man, just The Flaming Lips' show deserves an entire post!! Yeah, we saw them. Stay tuned for more fun and excitement, coming your way!!

Obligatory Chicago Post: Pt. 1

Hey, readers!! I've put off blogging about all the exciting things that have been going on lately, and I now see where that was a mistake. I'm gonna have to put off posting about those things for a little while longer, because I'm in Chicago right now and feel obligated to post about my experiences so far.

My mom and I took the train here, which was very nice and relaxing as always. We were only 2-ish hours late this time, which isn't too bad as far as the train goes. When we arrived, we walked down to our Chicago friend's office building to drop off our bags. At this point, my mom and I know our way around the city pretty well.

Once we were untethered by our possessions, we wandered around downtown for a few hours. I stopped at a Reckless Records, and got a Flaming Lips CD and 2 Beck CDs. That store is amazing!! Used CDs are automatically better than new ones, because they're cheaper. Afterwards, we went to Buckingham Fountain and watched a dude blow bubbles. He was pretty talented; he had two sticks, with a string web between them. The bubbles produced were HUGE, some bigger than my torso. Of course, those were the bubbles that killjoys liked popping the most.

Later on, we went back to the friend's (Rachel's) office. Her husband Christ picked us up, and we went to Gino's East for some authentic Chicago-style pizza. If you're not familiar with that establishment, let me tell you: it's pretty amazing!! They let you write on all the walls, which creates an interesting look.

We brought 2 Sharpies, but they didn't work terribly well. Next time, I'm gonna bring a paintbrush and model paint...that'll do it. Some friends of Christ and Rachel were meeting us, and we made the mistake of waiting for them to get there before we ordered. Our pizzas took about an hour, but they were TOTALLY worth it. I had some of the Bacon Cheeseburger pizza; my two favorite foods, combined!!

Today, we've so far just taken the train places. We're here in town for the DMB Caravan, which we have tickets for tomorrow and Sunday. of course, I'll fill you in on that much more once it happens. Anyway, We wanted to make the train trip once before hand, so we'd know we could successfully navigate there. We have to take the Metra, which is a high-speed train that is somehow different than the subways and the El. I think it has fewer stops. We got to the venue successfully, and Christ picked us up from there to take us back home. Now we're just chilling at their house, and I'm blogging. nifty, huh?

Ohh, by the way. One of the posts I have yet to write is concerning Crush Of Society, and a trip we recently took to a REAL STUDIO. More on it later, but I wanted to share with you what we got done there so far. They're just instrumentals right now, and they haven't been mixed. Here they are on Bandcamp, where you can download any of our posted songs. Here they are on Facebook, which I strongly encourage you to like. Please!! Also on Facebook is a little bit about our T-shirts. They're $10 if you're local enough I can get them to you without an issue, or $15 if they need to be shipped. Check the stuff out!!

Anyway...I didn't use the Internet AT ALL yesterday, so I have a bit of catching up to do. I'll let you know about the rest of my trip soon!!

Busy Makin' Stuff

Hey everyone!! I've had an unproductive weekend, but all weekdays so far have been the opposite.

On Friday I went to see X-Men: First Class, which was EXCELLENT. I don't know what it is, but there's something about modern movies taking place during the 60's that I love. Definitely my favourite X-men movie yet...And I'd know, considering the next day I watched 1 and 2!!

Also on Friday, I went shopping for, wait for it, circuitry supplies. I got a book at the library called Homemade Electronic Music, which is all about how to electronically alter household objects to make music. It also has some stuff about building equipment like mikes, and making distortion-type things for guitars, which I'm extra excited about. ANYWAY, in order to make the stuff, I had to get supplies. Namely, a soldering iron and solder, as well as assorted wires and cables and resistors and capacitors and blah blah blah.

To get my soldering iron, I went to Harbor Freight. For the first time ever. That place is insanely amazing!! I got one for 4 dollars. At RadioShack, they were 20 bucks for the cheapest one. Is that crazy or what? I kept going through the store, saying "it's only TWO DOLLARS!! Might as well get one..."

So far, I haven't got much built. I tried to make a contact microphone, for recording acoustic guitars and stuff. It wasn't successful, but only because of the fact I bought cheap parts. I did everything else right, and it's actually pretty legit looking. Hopefully, I'll have some more related projects to tell you about in the near future!!

As for today's productivity, first I went to work. Actually, that's how pretty much every day starts off, but it sets the scene decently. Anyway, for the last hour or so I was there, I printed up an image of Crush Of Society's logo. Specifically, the words on it. I took the piece of paper, and cut out each of the letters so I had a stencil. Then, I headed home with a plan in mind. A plan to build...A Crush Of Society screen printing template!!! You know, for T-shirts and stuff.

I found a big 1x3 board, and cut it into four equal pieces. I made a square out of them, and then found some window screen. I drove back to my grandparents' house, to use their staple gun to affix the screen to the frame. I did, with the help of my grandpa. Seriously, without him I wouldn't have thought to hammer in the loose staples, and I wouldn't have stretched the screen enough. After that I headed back home, and taped the stencil I made to the screen. I colored it in with Sharpie, so the logo would appear on the screen. Finally, I found some duct tape, and taped all the parts of the screen I wouldn't want ink to go through.

Now, I have one (1) completed shirt. It's actually not dry, but it's already EXCELLENT looking!! In my opinion, anyway.

I did all this because someone asked for a shirt on our Facebook page, and I suddenly remembered my plans to make some. And since it's summer, I just went ahead and did it!! I'm quite excited about having these, because we'll be able to sell them at our (currently unbooked) shows!

Anyone want one? Seriously, if you'll pay for the shirt and shipping, I'll totally make one for you. Custom!!!

Anywhoo...I'm gonna go check on the shirt. Stay excellent!!

Summer (Woo?)

Woo, Summer!!! I've been on break for about a week now...and despite my enthusiasm in the previous sentence, it's been pretty boring so far. I've mostly been working, and running, and that's about it. I've been getting up really early to do both those things, so once they're done the rest of my day is more or less spent online. And no one is blogging...but neither have I, so I can't complain too much.

Fortunately for my sanity, I've been making plans. Next Thursday, Tanner and I are (hopefully) going to hang out. On Friday, Bobby and I will be heading to a local free studio for teens, and recording. The place that it's at is actually pretty amazing. I guess the best way to describe it would be a youth community center? Apparently other places have them, but I've never heard of one other than the one we'll be going to. If it was in my town, I'd probably spend all my time there, because it's pretty sweet. They have art classes, and a huge drama club, and stuff like that...and, of course, a recording studio!! They book shows for bands too, both for the teens in bands and the teens who want to see those bands play. I'm definitely going to try and organize a show for us there, once we've recorded. From the pictures I've seen, their previous concerts' audiences are mostly shrieking teen girls, which will be a major bonus, hahaha!!!

Well...I'm afraid I don't have much more to write about. Hopefully I'll have some excellent insights for you soon, particularly ones concerning circuitry and whatnot (hint hint!) It'll be very awesome, I hope...until then, have a less boring summer than me!! And blog about it, please!!

End Of The School Year!

Hey, everyone!! Sadly, I've been distracted by finals for the last week, so I haven't blogged. Luckily for you, right now I'm just chilling in my mom's classroom after school. It's an excellent excess of time, perfect for updating everyone on how things are going.

First things first, for all of you Crush Of Society fans, our upcoming concert was cancelled/postponed. The school gymnasium they were going to hold it in backed out, saying they were afraid of being liable for anything that may happen. I suppose they have a good point, as my fast and loud music is likely to start a mosh pit. wouldn't want anyone's toes to get crushed...of course, I doubt the school would really be liable. STILL, Bobby and I are going to try out a new temporary drummer, run a few practices, and book a few shows in the greater Detroit area. Lucky for us, we both have some good connections. Also, there's a Facebook page that's dedicated to booking concerts in the area, and all you really have to do is ask them to play. Convenient, right?

Back to my exams, so far I've taken 4: Econ, English, Chemistry, and French 1. I got a 99% on the first two, because they were both insanely easy. The Econ test was 120 questions, but every question was repeated about 3 times. I was pretty confident about Chemistry for the days leading up to it, because the teacher let us make a one page cheat sheet. Mine was insane; I practically needed a magnifying glass to read it, hahaha! Unfortunately for me, it was due at the end of the day Tuesday. guess who forgot to turn it in? This guy.

I realized I'd have to study a bit, so last night I pulled out my notes and started reviewing them. Cue panic, when I realized I didn't remember anything. I had a mini-panic attack, but I managed to calm myself down after awhile. I played random chords on guitar, and sang what I needed to remember, and it worked well. I didn't remember anything I sang, but the things I studied stuck with me. the grade isn't posted yet, but my teacher stopped me in the hall to tell me I had the highest grade out of all the classes so far. I figure it's because I got rid of my crutch, and used only my own brainpower. Can you imagine what it'd be like if I studied for every test??

Ahh well...I think now is the time to study for my last exam tomorrow, Algebra. I have a note card cheat-sheet, but now I'm wondering if I really need it...anyway, wish me luck!! And of course, stay amazing!

Cruisin'

GUESS WHAT? I got my Level 2 license today!! For those who don't have to deal with Michigan's graduated license system, that means I'm now able to drive alone!! Of course, there's a catch: only one other minor in the car with me, and no driving past 10 (there are exceptions to both if it's for school or work).

Passing my road test was, to be honest, ridiculously easy. I showed up 20 minutes late, partly because of an accident at an intersection right outside of the testing place. Because of the delay, my actual drive was only about 20 minutes. It was a little freaky, though - the roads I was on were WAY more congested than what they normally test people on, but I had no choice because of the accident (a tipped semi, no injuries).

In celebration of getting my license today, we ordered a pizza. A pizza, my friends, that I picked up myself. Alone. In my car. Blasting The Pixies. Know why? Cause I have my license!!

...And that's about it for this post. I still have an entire week of school left, PLUS tomorrow and Friday. My teachers are still introducing new lessons...bogus! Anyway, have fun not being in school!!

A Weezer-Themed Post

Hey there, everyone. I know that I told you I'd have some of the demos up, but unfortunately I still don't. However, as compensation, here is the video of me playing "Put Me Back Together," like I said I would make after the collage concert!

The reason I haven't posted the demos is, well, because I didn't like them. They were really hard for me to listen to, and the first time I did I had to skip over a few tracks. They had many problems, with blame spread out evenly. The instruments, vocals especially, were not played well. That's the band's fault, and I'm willing to accept that. Also, they didn't blend very well in the mixes; the vocals sat on top of all the other instruments, and guitars were too quiet. I understand that with some musicians, vocals should be higher up in the mix. However, our songs are mostly written with vocals as just some words to go with the music. We're not focused on highlighting our voices, because they're not good enough to do that with.

We're just going to focus on getting ready for the show in two weeks, and stop worrying about making something to sell. I know we play well live, because I've seen video proof. Therefore, we're just gonna have to please them in person.

On Wednesday, I had a persuasive essay assigned to me, on the topic of my choosing. Of course, being the music nerd I am, I decided my thesis would be "Pinkerton is an extremely important album, both sonically and culturally." Yes, I wrote a three-page report on an obscure emo album from the Nineties. What of it? Here it is, in case you'd like to read it! I have to deliver a speech on it Tuesday. Am I concerned? Not at all!!

So, that's about all that has been going on. Ohh, by the way, stop by and check out Lemons Don't Make Lemonade!!! It's an excellent blog, and whenever I see a new post from Jessica come up in my reader, I know I can look forward to laughs for the next few minutes! Her posts are terribly inappropriate, yet very intelligent at the same time. She's nearing 100 followers, so I had to help her out with a name drop.

Okay, then...I really hope you all like the video!! It took all of 45 minutes to make, you know...tons of effort!!! *sarcasm* Anyway, I have to go do musician stuff now, so stay wonderful until next time.

Locked In The Studio

Ahhh...what an exhausting, productive weekend it has been. Thank goodness it was 3 days long!!

This weekend, in an effort to finish COS's E.P. in time for our upcoming concert, I hosted a 2 day, monster recording session in my basement. We were scheduled to be down there 7-8 hours both days, with non-stop working. We were trying out a new guy on drums, a friend of Bobby's named Anthony.

Sadly, Anthony hasn't worked out too well yet. We're going to try practicing a bit more with him before the concert, because we'd like to have him on drums. However, putting him behind the drums and immediately setting the tape rolling (figuratively) wasn't too great of an idea. We wasted about an hour trying to get the drums right on one song, and Stephen was getting super frustrated. The next day, we just had Steve do the drums on the song.

The first day, we got 2 songs completely done, plus part of a 3rd, the one with the drumming issues. We did Good One, Zen Stereo, and Camel Holocaust (the ill-fated one.) Seriously, Camel Holocaust has given us SO MUCH trouble. At our last session, we spent 3 hours on it, and ended up scrapping every track. This time, it did turn out better. Good One was recorded pretty painlessly, once we got Anthony on track with drumming to it.

Really, the biggest success of the first day was Zen Stereo. I'd never been happy with the song, and I was really wary of recording it. However, when we sat down to run through it, it sounded INCREDIBLE. We had Bobby on lead and vocals, Anthony on rhythm, Steve on drums, and myself on bass. I'd improvised the bass line right before the run though, and Anthony and Stephen had never played the song before. Still, somehow it all clicked. With the extra parts, a slower tempo, and an impressive solo, the song ended up sounding incredible. As I'm typing this, Stephen is IMing me about the finished mix. I'll have it up soon, for you dear fans!!

After the first day, Stephen and I were picked up by some friends and headed to The Raven, a VERY cool coffee shop nearby. It was my first time being there with other teens, which made it neat. Also, I liked the company quite a bit, which helps. The one guy, Scott, had just graduated, and it was the first time I'd seen him since then. Very fun!!

On the second day, Anthony wouldn't be getting there until 4. Steve, Bobby, and I finished up what had to be done on Camel Holocaust first thing in the morning; overdubbing my guitar solo, re-recording the (terrible) vocals, getting Stephen to do the drum part, and recording the bassline Bobby made up for it. We slapped some effects on it, and the rough mix sounded pretty excellent.

After that, we recorded a short, punk song that I wrote. No solo, no bridge, nothing; just verses and choruses. It's called "I Need A Life," and it started with some lyrics I wrote while working at a gym last summer. We rushed through that one, because Stephen had to leave to take care of his 4H animals as soon as possible. Once he left, Bobby and I just chilled. I taught him the basics of playing Minecraft, so he did that while I played Pokemon Silver on my Gameboy Color. Seriously, I've re-fallen in love with my Gameboy. It's so retro, and hipster-ish, but I also love the gamplay. Of course, this is coming from someone who hasn't seriously played videogames since 6th grade, so take it with a grain of salt.

All in all, it was a great weekend. Working in the studio is super-exhausting, and sometimes frustrating, but in the end it's going to be worth it. Stephen's going to get me the tracks tomorrow, and I'll try to have them up on here as soon after that as I can!

Viva La Revolution!

Hey there - big things have been happening today!

To answer Julia (and Christopher)'s question, I'm from Michigan. Currently, the political situation in good ol' MI is "business-ruled oligarchy," with our new governor Rick Snyder and Congress ignoring and abusing the citizens. They're also trying to bust the unions, and are hurting the middle class by doing so.

What I mean to say is, they've eliminated all business taxes, and they're replacing that money by attacking teachers. I don't want to get into all the minuet details of how exactly that's happening, but it is happening - as the child of a teacher, it's scary as all get-out. As a high school student, it's scary. As a citizen, it's scary. If you're wondering about why I feel this way, check out some of the things that have been written on it; check out the laws that are taking away from my education.

ANYWAY, my point is that I went to a rally at the capitol building today, held by the Michigan Educator's Association in Lansing. That's the state teacher's union, of which my mom is a member. I thought it would be sweet to go to an actual protest, and hold a sign and whatnot.

The rally started with a huge picnic at the MEA headquarters, which was sweet. Everyone wore red, and it was a huge festival-type thing. The people were all nice, although we encountered a pretty weird situation at one point. This dude walked up to my mother and me, and started asking all these questions about what was going on. He said he was from out of the area, and was interested in the details of what was going on. We talked to him for around 20 minutes, and it started to seem a little strange. All of his questions were very professional sounding, and they did a good job of getting us to keep talking. Once he left, my mom told me that she was pretty sure he was recording the conversation; he was fiddling with something in his pocket the whole time (his jacket pocket, weirdos), and the leading nature of his questions suddenly made sense. We saw him talking to other people later, presumably doing the same thing with them. I know we both answered his questions intelligently and well, but it was a bit unsettling that he was (illegally) recording us. Oh well...we sounded too knowledgeable to be used for slander.

At 3-ish, everyone headed down to the capitol building lawn. By the time we had found a parking space, the protest was in full swing: a massive sea of red, with people lining the streets and waving signs. There were tables set up with petitions to recall Snyder from office, and people leading cheers. We stood by the road for a while, waving our signs and encouraging people to honk for us. It was surprising how many people took pictures of us - they seemed to like our signs!

At 4, people began speaking. There were about 10,000 people by that time, mostly from the teacher's union. However, there were also lots of United Auto Workers members, and Teamsters driving their semis around the block honking. The candidate who ran against Snyder was there, and his speech was pretty great. It did get slightly boring after a while, but it was really hard to not get caught up in the spirit. A reporter for some website interviewed me, and said there'd be some quotes from me in her final article. I'll definitely be putting a link up when it's published!

All in all, it was really cool to do. I had a lot of fun, and I felt really important. I've heard that protests "don't do anything," but I disagree. I went out there with 10,000 other people, and told my government that they haven't been listening. I felt like I was part of something big, and like I was taking an active role in determining my future.

I've gotta say...protesting does wear you out!! I have to go get some sleep - have a good one!

Drew Morgan, Live!!

Man, too long since I've posted...

Last week was my school's spring concert, the Collage Concert. It's a chance for students to show off their talent playing apart from the band, which I did. Since this will be my last year in band, I knew I absolutely had to do something for myself there.

I had planned on doing a cover of "Hallelujah" with my vocally talented friend Leah, and myself on guitar. However, as time went on and I was playing and singing more and more, I decided to do something completely solo - guitar AND vocals. I helped Leah get "Hallelujah" ready for her to do without me, and worked on finding a song for myself. For a while I was considering "Whole Wide World" by Wreckless Eric, because A) it's the first song I ever learned to sing and play, and B) it's incredibly freakin' easy. However, I figured some of the lyrics weren't the best, and worried it would start to get repetitive. So what to play?

Eventually, I landed on the perfect song - "Put Me Back Together" by Weezer. I'd been trying to learn it for a while, but I couldn't find a completely accurate tab out there. I finally found a couple that were half-right, and combined them. Then I played it like crazy, until I had it down pretty well. I took my guitar to band class and played it for a group of 10 or twelve people, and it went down pretty well. Therefore, I was READY TO ROCK!!!

At the concert, I used all my own equipment. Well...sorta. I used a school amplifier, but nothing of mine was plugged into their worse-than-terrible PA system. I had my friend Jarred, a professional musician, do my soundcheck. He went as far up into the bleachers as he could, as far from me as possible. He then told me when it was loud enough, and then had me turn it up MORE. I felt bad for the people in the front, because it was LOUD. Not obnoxious, just a clean guitar and mic turned up to 10 - literally.

[This is where I'd normally post a video, but the one my mom took on her crappy cellphone camera is unlistenable. I can tell that I did well by watching it, but it's horribly static-y and clippy. My bad - I'll have to film myself playing it again sometime and post it!]

My performance went excellently. I think I was the most audible person there, because I was the only person with foresight enough to not use the PA. Also, this was the first time I'd sang to an audience this large, and it was a good choice to wait. Instead of making people listen to me start at terrible and get progressively better, I got really good privately and tried to blow their minds away my first time. Hopefully, that's what I did.

I did screw up a few times, but only one was slightly noticeable. I changed to the wrong chord on the guitar, and then shifted to the right one really fast. I might have gotten away with it if I'd stuck to my mistake, but it a bit more blatant the way it was. Still, I'm so incredibly happy with how I did. Not many people have come up raving to me, but the ones who have are very adamant, and people I virtually never talk to. They're the people who have no reason to fib and tell you you were better than you were, right? All in all, this performance got me really excited about playing for larger crowds. Which segues into my next paragraph nicely...

I found out about a benefit concert in a nearby town this morning, and signed myself up to perform. It's to raise money to pay for a cancer patient's medical bills, which I'm happy to help with. It's June 17th, so I'll be keeping you posted on that.

Woo!! Getting all of this written has re-kindled my excitement, hahahaha! Yeah...sorry about the enthusiasm, you'll have to watch out. Anyway - have good weeks! And to those who are lucky enough to be getting out of school already, don't have too much fun in the sun!!

Most Of My Post Titles Involve Exclamation Points!

Holy crap - I just had a double-sneeze. A sneeze within a sneeze, if you will. Like, not one after the other - two at THE SAME TIME. It was slightly terrifying, but also exhilarating.

Anyway - this past week has been my birthday week! With the actual day falling on Tuesday. My family celebrated Sunday, because I was coaching JH quizbowl Tuesday. OK, let me get it out of the way - my mom gave me a refurbished laptop with Windows 7, my uncle got me a wah pedal for my guitar, and my grandparents gave me my grandma's old car. Phew...I dislike telling people about stuff like that, due to a fear of sounding like a braggart. Not my intention!

The laptop has been occupying large amounts of my time. I couldn't play Minecraft on our old family computer, but I now can. Guess who is addicted? Not me, actually, but it is really fun!! I've also decided I want to learn a programming language, so I've been messing around with Just BASIC. so far, I can write a program that holds a short, stilted conversation with the user...not useful in any way, but it is kinda cool.

Was that game, the one where everyone says the word "penis" with increasing volume, around before the movie 500 Days of Summer? I just ask because I remember that game from Jr. High, but I don't think the movie has been out that long. Also, I figured this would be the most socially acceptable way for me to meet That Blond Guy's challenge to say penis in my next post. Bam! Challenge met.

Well, if you'll excuse me, I must get back to eating leftover Chinese and watching Scott Pilgrim for the nth time. Drink your milk!

Prom Night, Prom Night, Gotta Get Down On Prom Night!!

Hey everyone! This last weekend was pretty freaking epic...My first prom was Saturday!!!!

Prom was amazing!! I started my morning out with a run, which was probably not the best idea because it tired out my legs. Still, you can't beat the invincible feeling you get for the rest of the day after a run. After that I headed into town to pick up my lovely date Gabby's corsage, and to dine on some of the best fast food on earth, Arby's. We were actually running kind of late at that point, because Gabby was coming over at five and it was already two-ish. I still had to shower, and the house had to be cleaned for pictures. Here are some of those pictures, by the way!

This is me, attempting to take a serious picture before Gabby got to my house. It was actually a challenge, because I was super excited and couldn't stop fidgeting.

This picture shows literally nothing about how we were dressed, but it does sh

ow the two of us together. I'll be able to post more pictures soon, fear not.

When we got to the country club place it was being held, we followed a group of students we saw heading to the back of the building. When we got closer, it became apparent this was the wrong way. Also, we realized the people we were following were all TEC kids, which is our school's trade-school program. They were all mechanics-in-training, and as soon as they saw me they were like, "Drew, follow us!!!" Then they got us lost. Also, all the girls walked way ahead of the guys, and Gabby was swept away from me momentarily...leaving me stuck with the guys, who were shouting loudly in their redneck-voices about how much they'd love to "tear up this golf course with my SNOWMOBILE!!!!" They then proceeded to make engine-revving noises with their mouths. needless to say, I was really glad to catch up with Gabby and leave them to their mechanic-ness.

When we got inside, we were shuttled over to the sign-in table. We were invited to vote for prom king and queen, but seeing as neither of us cared, we didn't. Damien and Cheyenne were there, and had two seats at their table for us. They went to find Tanner to give him a seat next to us, and Gabby and I went and got in line for our pictures. They then served us our dinner, which was pretty good. I didn't have the main food, chicken, just because I wanted a light stomach for dancing.

Speaking of dancing, I did. Like crazy. Tanner and Damien are great dancers, and they gave me a few pointers on how to not look like I'm having a conniption on the dance floor. We skanked the night away...even though there was no ska music playing.

Still, the DJs were great, and spent the whole night mixing and matching different songs up at once. They did an awesome job, and you could tell they were professionals.

After prom was over, Tanner drove Gabby and I to Denny's to chill. Damien and Cheyenne also came, as well as Damien's sister Ashley and her friend Lisa. I was surprisingly hungry, and had a fried cheese melt with a hush puppy sundae for dessert.

Damien took this picture while we were there, and I feel bad that I flipped off the camera. It's my natural reaction to a camera after midnight, and I figured there'd be more taken. However, it also makes me laugh, because it's a great picture. Tanner's stuffing his face with a burger, I'm giving Damien the finger, and Gabby is looking at me scoldingly. We sat around listening to music, singing various ska songs and annoying everyone with our rendition of "Friday."

We headed home after a while, and called it a night. My curfew's 11, but I didn't get home until 2 AM. My mom didn't care, because it was prom and whatnot. I had an excellent time, and I'm really glad Gabby took me.

Also, today is my birthday! I celebrated it Sunday, but I won't be giving you dear readers an update on it until I get time to write another blog post. I've been busy playing Minecraft on my new laptop...ohhh, spoilers??

A Few Super-Duper Blogs I Know

Blogs I like...let's get to the linkage!!

• First and foremost, I absolutely HAVE to link to The Nerd Archives. Actually, I think I did already recently, but it totally deserves a re-linking. That Blond Guy's blog is freaking hilarious!! It starts out with normal stories, and then adds on the insanity until you start to question what normality is...Also, he's to thank for most of my current followers, so double brownie points!!

• Next up is The Blog Of A "Generic Dude". It's author, Tanner "Four String Finger Sting" Simmons, is a good friend of mine in real life. He was the one to play the awesome cover of "We Are Going To Be Friends" at the talent show, and I have a video of him playing bass and singing at a party here. His blog is a (slightly, amusingly hyperbolic) account of his going-ons - somewhat like mine!

• Here's Consumable Sarcasm, a very cynically sarcastic blog. Ross reflects the horrible, hilarious thoughts everyone seems to have, and it's nice to see one isn't alone in their wickedness. Not to mention, he featured yours truly as a guest blogger once!!

• Bookish.Spazz, who is a truly nice person. She even does volunteer work!! I wouldn't describe her as a photo blogger, but she does post lots of (very nice) pictures that help convey all of her stories. It's always nice to read the blogs of intelligent students who are dealing with the many adventures school tends to provide.

• Finally, the blog that motivated me to do this, I Don't Skinny Dip...I Chunky Dunk. Eeshie recently tagged me in a thingy, and I was quite flattered. I realized that I should try to do the same for others!! Her blog is very smartly written, and quite humorous. It's cool to read about the adventures of a NYC native, considering the complete lack of non-farmers where I live.

Well, there you have it...This isn't an all-inclusive list by any means, because I love so many blogs you'd get sick and tired of reading the list. However, these blogs and bloggers have been particularly influential in my blogging life...quite often, they're the reason I post. If you're looking for new blog-roll material, these are the places to check out!

Talent Show - Ohh Yeah!

Hey gang, what's happening? [pauses to listen] Sounds like it's been a blast! Unless it hasn't. In which case, I'm very sorry to hear about [insert event].

I was in my school's talent show on Thursday! As the astute readers may know, Stephen and I have been preparing to do a cover of "The Remedy" since November. We got a talented drummer, Jayme, to round us off, and rocked the house.

Right before we went on, we had a bunch of terrifying technical difficulties. When I set up my bass amp, plugged in, and turned it on, no sound came out. Stephen and I spent waaaaay too long trying to fix it, while the audience was waiting right outside the curtain. The teacher who organized it sent charismatic people out in front to keep everyone entertained, while she kept shouting at us "We're losing them!!!" We weren't, really, because they were getting louder and louder, excited. Jayme got sick of waiting, and started drumming loudly. when she did, the audience FREAKED! It was really awesome, actually.

Just as I was about to give up and cry, I adjusted a bolt thingy on my guitar and everything started working. It was turned up super-loud, and as a soundcheck I started playing "Blister In the Sun." I fixed my volume, and the curtains opened up. It was super-intense to be up there, with a full house of around 300-400 people. I was just trying to provide a strong foundation to the song by playing loud, which I thought I did. My amp wasn't as loud as it sounded on stage though, obviously, so a bit of the punchiness was lost. Still, I think I looked awesome up there, grooving and whatnot.

After we left, fellow blogger Tanner went up and played "We Are Going To Be Friends." It...was...AMAZING! He also had amp problems, but instead of panicking, he just moved up closer to the audience and played his acoustic unplugged. Also, because we were still tearing down our setup, he played in front of the closed curtains. The end result was a very emotional, beautiful cover of a song that's great to begin with. He took third, but I'm of the opinion he absolutely deserved first. After the show, Steve, Jayme, Tanner, and I all went to get ice cream at McDonald's and celebrate. Our performance didn't place, but it was so much fun that it didn't matter at all.

In other news, I got an incredibly awesome bag! It's olive drab canvas, and about notebook sized. Yes, it's a man-purse. So convenient! Plus, I feel more sophisticated by carrying it, so there's that.

One final order of business: I'd like to link to all the outstanding blogs I love, so expect that in an upcoming post. If you've linked me recently, fear not, I'm not going to be rude and refuse to return the favor. What kind of horrible person would that make me?

Well, friends...it's looking like we've reached the end of this post. Remember: stay in school!

Quizbowl: State Edition

Ohhh yeah!!!! Quizbowl's state tournament was the past two days!! Two days, in the college town of East Lansing, with tons of time to shop on Grand River Ave. Plus, a last hurrah for my favourite school activity.

We left Friday morning around 7, a little while before school starts. There was a coaches' meeting at 10, so we made it there just in time. Our first match wasn't til 12:30, so the entire team left campus and went to some shops. Actually, at that time of the morning, most shops weren't open, so we all hung out in a student book store. After some time passed, we headed over to a Barnes & Noble, where we rode the escalators for a few hours. It was our small-town version of an amusement park, actually.

Our first match was crazy-easy, with us totally dominating. The first 10 minutes or so I was nervous, with my heart pounding and whatnot, but I relaxed after I saw how easy everything was. We didn't play again until 3:30, so we headed back in. This time, we spent our entire break in Urban Outfitters, reading all of their various coffee table books. I was getting worried they'd kick us out, actually, because it was pretty obvious we weren't getting anything. Hey, if they had affordable prices...I made the team sneak out the back door, just to avoid a confrontation...I'd hate to have to have a rumble in Urban Outfitters.

Our second match was in a tiny, airless room, and it was a bit more intense. We won again, but it wasn't by the huge point margin from before. We played again fairly soon, so the team just sat in the student union hallways and goofed around. I brought my Gameboy Color, so I sat and played Pokemon Silver. Yeah, I was pretty much a total geek, with my old-school gaming system...it's actually the only console I still have.

We lost the third match, by a very small margin. It took place in the same room we lost in last year, and had a terrible reader. He made little comments between questions, and wasted a lot of time. regardless, we still lost fair and square. The tournament was double elimination, with one loss per day, so we were done. We stopped by our hotel, and then headed to a great restaurant nearby for dinner.

When we got back, everyone sat around for a while watching TV, then headed down to the pool. We all spent a lot of time in the hot tub, talking to people from other teams. There were actually some guys we knew, from a school in our Jr. High team's league. I'd also gone to summer camp with one of them, so it was cool catching up. When the pool closed, everyone watched Adult Swim until we fell asleep where we were (which got us in big trouble, but never mind that.)

We didn't play the next day until 1:30, so we went back to Grand River Ave. It was Record Store Day, and we figured it'd be cool to check out all the great deals. Wrong. I'm the only person in the group who listens to vinyl, and even I wasn't interested in records this time. Every store was PACKED, with lines full of hipsters everywhere. We left the first shop we went to, FBC, and checked out a cool little thrift store for a while. They had really nice clothes, including a leather jacket I loved, but I saved my money for another time. We headed back to FBC, and it was much less packed. I got a bunch of bargain used CDs, and a promo from Sub Pop. I also got my fill of amusing hipsters, standing around and competing over their respective knowledge of underground bands.

We headed back to the tournament...and played again in the same bad room, with the same bad reader. And lost. It was another close match, too, which was kind of a bummer. We took 7th overall, which was an improvement over last year. Still, the whole trip was awesome, and I had a great time. Now, all I have to do is coach JH quizbowl...my schedule is almost free!!

Guess What? Still Spring Break...

Day...five? of spring break. So far, I spent the first weekend ill. Now my mom's sick, with the same illness. I blame Gabby's mom's sister...that's as far back as I can trace it.

On Monday, Gabby and I went to the mall to find a shirt for me to wear to prom. It was kind of tough, because her dress is purple, and they don't sell many purple shirts. Furthermore, they don't make many shirts for Iggy Pop-sized people. Weird thing is, I always feel tall at my family reunions...

Eventually we found one, and it looks pretty freaking good. It'll look awesome, when I put it with my sparkley polka-dotted tie.

So...one last order of business: I feel the need to link to a pretty awesome blog I follow, The Nerd Archives. Actually, saying That Blond Guy's blog is "pretty awesome" is quite the understatement; I will regularly laugh until I cry after reading his posts. Nope, no real reason for my linking to his blog. It's not like he said he'd link to mine if I did...

Well, I must be off. I have a largish science project due as soon as I get back to school, so I really need to get crackin'.

Spring Break

Ughhh...I'm on the tail end of what is either a horrible allergy spell, or a cold. I'm more inclined to think it's a cold, but I hate to say so because that would mean I'm not invincible to viruses after all. Stupid immune system, man up!

In other news, it's Spring Break!!! What am I doing for it? Nothing much, just a bunch of music-related endeavors. I'm glad to be having a low-key break, because I've been getting kinda burnt-out at school. Not horribly, just enough that I needed a break.

Also, I'm glad not to be going on the huge community vacation my town seems to have planned. Seriously, about 50 people are all going to the same resort in Florida; they all have matching T-shirts about it and everything. What's the point of that? It's somewhat cult-like and sad. Actually, my principal, his wife the chemistry teacher, my superintendent, and his wife the French teacher all took Friday off because of it. 4th hour chemistry literally had no teacher...it was like Lord Of The Flies in there.

Is anyone else on Spring Break? Doing anything cool? Going on a cult-trip to Florida?